Management is described as the process of “doing things through other people.” This is accomplished in organizations, industries, and commercial enterprises where large numbers of people are employed to achieve corporate goals. The managers collectively are the bosses, invariably well paid and / or rewarded with shares in the company with a share of the profits. Top management agrees on the objectives, strategies, and tactics to achieve the goals they set for the company they lead, employing a large workforce to produce the goods and provide the services to consumers around the world.

Management theory, concerned with how to get the most out of front-line workers in industrial and commercial companies, became a 20th century phenomenon. Previously, after the industrial revolution, large concentrations of workers in mills and factories were needed to mass produce goods that would replace the agricultural and artisan work hitherto produced in small rural family or communal units. In those days, managers were authoritarian and tyrannical when slave labor or contract labor, including child labor with starvation wages, could be deployed at the behest of the ruling capitalist class.

The world has changed since then and the owners of capital can no longer treat labor as a disposable commodity. Trade unions, communism and universal education along with world markets meant that the old methods of almost forced, repetitive and exhausting labor of the ‘dark satanic mills’ could no longer be sustained. New disciplines emerged such as economics, psychology, and sociology. These social sciences were called to construct theories of management and organizational behavior that would explain and help to understand the dynamics of an increasingly sophisticated and demanding workforce.

The earliest management theories exemplified by the work of Frederick Winslow Taylor had been colloquially described as the “carrot and stick” approach. Taylor coined the term “scientific management” for his theory, which was later referred to simply as “Taylorism.” He tried to break the tasks down into their simplest elements so that an assembly line robot could perform them without thinking. All brain work had to be removed from the workshop and handled only by managers. Taylorism is explained as the “decoupling of the labor process from the skills of the workforce” and is defined as “management strategies that are based on the separation of conception and execution.” This approach worked well with early immigrants to the United States who had little facility with the English language and limited social or community life, but it proved less effective with future generations.

However, in automated plants using very high-tech solutions for routine 24-hour work with little or no human involvement, the principle still holds. The researchers acknowledge that McDonalds and outsourced call centers (customer service operations) use these strategies and can claim success by ensuring “predictability and controllability.” An up-to-date example of scientific management still at work is Malcolm Moore’s report “Thugs in China Stores” (The Daily Telegraph, March 6, 2010). It describes the ‘inhumane’ working conditions of 38,000 dormitory-living workers who work for one of 102 factories owned by Foxconn, Quanta or Pegatron, all Chinese companies that are suppliers of US Apple products (for example , iPhone) for the world market. Oddly enough, it is these supplier companies that increasingly “introduce new designs and technologies” and “are at the forefront” (op. Cit.). Today’s Chinese workers seem to use their brains even without the “human relations” approach!

Elton Mayo’s Hawthorne plant experiments (1927-32) conducted at the Western Electric plant in Cicero Illinois gave rise to a theory as a departure from Taylorism that came to be known as the School of Human Relations by its many followers. Douglas McGregor called Taylorism and similar top-down command and control approaches to work management, Theory X, and instead proposed Theory Y which gives employees more autonomy and discretion at work following the Relationships approach. Humanas by Elton Mayo. Mayo’s experiments consisted of changing lighting, changing working hours, and giving more or less breaks, resulting in workers producing more with each intervention. The ‘Hawthorne effect’ has been summed up as employees becoming more productive because they knew they were being sympathetically watched by prestigious people who happened to be social scientists. These experiments showed that “an increase in worker productivity was produced by the psychological stimulus of being singled out, involved, and made to feel important.”

The bottom line is that the ‘Hawthorne researchers … identified the importance of the’ human factor ‘in organizations (which) meant that it was now recognized that workers had social needs and interests in such a way that they could no longer be considered as economically motivated automatons. imagined by Taylorism. ‘ However, it should be noted that there were 19th century industrialists with Quaker backgrounds who met the “moral and social needs” of their workers by providing housing, places of worship, and other community services. The Cadbury Chocolate Factory Bournville plant in the UK is a case in point. Being included in the School of Human Relations is the job of the Tavistock Institute in London, which is committed to studying the work of coal miners. They also understood that the simplification and specialization of work did not increase productivity, but by giving more autonomy to the work group in organizing their work shift, it did produce better results. Under conditions of uncertainty, when engaged in non-routine tasks, “semi-autonomous” work groups performed better than isolated individual workers.

Another theory that did not apply exclusively to management, but was a general psychological theory supported by the School of Human Relations, was Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. McGregor called it Theory Z. Simply put, it can be visualized as a pyramid with a broad base starting with physiological needs (lowest), which must first be met before requiring attention to safety needs, followed by needs of love / affiliation and then esteem. needs, and at the highest point, the needs of Self-actualization.

One company that had presumably adhered to classical theories of worker motivation, but found it unfeasible at its cost was Iceland Frozen Foods (The Sunday Times, March 8, 2009). Four years before the change in course, the morale of the company’s workers was “in low water after 40% of the Deeside head office staff were laid off.” With a change in tactic, CEO Malcolm Walker brought the workforce “confidence in the leadership abilities of the top management team with a maximum score of 73%.” Since the basic needs of employees for fair wages, reasonable hours of work, paid vacations, non-discrimination (gender, race, disability, etc.), i.e. equal opportunity, are respected (now legally enforced), the Workers will seek Maslow’s higher-order needs. be satisfied with your daily work. This is what Iceland Frozen Foods was able to provide its workforce after a change to the Human Relations model of treating employees.

Nicknamed ‘the king of cool’, Malcolm Walker initiated measures to give his workers promotion opportunities by working hard and using their brains. For example, a shop worker who became a home delivery driver achieved promotion to the position of senior supervisor in just a few years and is quoted in the article speaking with approval from his boss. Iceland Frozen Foods staff are reportedly not feeling overly pressured … and not prone to work-related stress. A survey of a representative sample of UK companies revealed that Iceland Frozen Foods was voted by a workforce of more than 17,000 men and women as the third most successful company compared to all other companies to motivate them to achieve their best in the world. job. This is a good example of human relationships in action and providing strong support for the movement.

Another example that throws a different aspect of the theory of human relations comes from the current trend towards globalization. Euro Disneyland, a “transplanted American theme park” near Paris lost $ 34 million in the first six months since it opened in April 1992. Even before its opening, there was strong local opposition that threatened French cultural sensibilities. A strict dress code for employees and a ban on wine in the park (sacred to the French), among other things, infuriated Parisians. Eisner, the CEO of the parent company in the US, who spoke French and had a French wife, and also received many awards from the French government, has yet to make Euro Disney a going concern.

The change came when “Eisner learned to recognize French cultural traditions and quality of life, rather than focusing exclusively on American business interests, income and profits at the expense of the underlying French culture.” Relaxing the rigid rules, eliminating American-style hot dog carts, appointing local managers, and deciding to use the French language in the park were essential components of its later success. The conclusion is inescapable that the “carrot and stick” approaches still seem to work if the conditions are right for either approach.